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Keep Austin Weird: A Guide to the Odd Side of Town
Red Wassenich, who coined of the phrase “Keep Austin Weird,” is tour guide to the weirder side of Austin, Texas, through this endlessly entertaining text and over 180 color photos of colorful places, people, and doings in the state’s capital city. Tour the Cathedral of Junk, a three-story, sixty-ton behemoth made with hubcaps, TVs, and over 700 bicycles. Meet Leslie, the cross-dressing, semi-homeless perennial mayoral candidate. Party at the Spamarama, Austin's premier weird cook-off, known for its Spam-filled dishes from "gourmet" and "insane" recipes. Keep your eyes peeled for cruising art cars or take a Segway tour of downtown. Shop in South 1st Street's weird businesses, including Roadhouse Relics and Unemployed Democrats. Sports fans must see Austin's Roller Derby, starring the Texas Rollergirls, and bowl at the Dart Bowl, where bowling kitsch is king. For the adventurous, there is no better guide to Austin!
128 pages, Paperback
First published April 4, 2006
21 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 3, 2020
This is amazing look at the fun, outlandish, and weird side of the city we love so much. This book holds a special place in my heart as the author, Red, was the librarian who trained me at the reference desk on my first day at ACC. Rest in peace, and keep it weird.
January 8, 2011
The subject of Austin's weirdness deserves so much better treatment. The pictures are great but the text is terrible. The author's tone is sarcastic and negative rather than appreciative and enthusiastic. But the worst part is that every other sentence is a crappy unnecessary joke. And many of the jokes are written in a way that makes it unclear that it's a joke - so much so that I stopped trusting any of the text, assuming it was all just bullshit. For example, on p. 63, he captions a photo of a statue "Famous professional golfer Stevie Ray Vaughan" . . . well, I know Stevie Ray Vaughan isn't a pro golfer, but does this mean that all his other captions of cool statues in Austin (some of which I wanted to know about) are total bullshit? I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone, but especially not to someone who is hoping to learn any facts about Austin. It also doesn't include a map of the areas and locations he talks about.
And finally, the author focuses way too much on himself, spending way too much space on his own weird activities, collections, yard art, art car, etc. One or two of these mentions might have been fine, but I highly doubt that his art car is one of the top few in Austin, that his weird yard art deserves such a high profile spot in the book, etc. Overall, it reads like a rambling account of what he happened to already know about Austin, much of which is about himself or his friends, or is just made up.
And finally, the author focuses way too much on himself, spending way too much space on his own weird activities, collections, yard art, art car, etc. One or two of these mentions might have been fine, but I highly doubt that his art car is one of the top few in Austin, that his weird yard art deserves such a high profile spot in the book, etc. Overall, it reads like a rambling account of what he happened to already know about Austin, much of which is about himself or his friends, or is just made up.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews